Pearman's speedy exit from Hawaii
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
April 9, 2006

Saturday was not a Honolulu kind of day in Charlottesville. It was 45 degrees and raining, not the most desirable conditions for a two-and-a-half hour spring football practice.
But that was OK with Andrew Pearman, who feels a lot more comfortable in Virginia's seasonable diversity than under the consistently sunny skies of Hawaii, where he spent his freshman year of college.

After his senior year at Providence High in Charlotte, Andrew decided not to follow big brother Alvin Pearman to UVa. Instead, he felt the lure of Coach June Jones' Hawaii football program and made the leap of faith.

Following his first season there, Pearman realized his heart was closer to home and transferred to Virginia, then sat out last season. He has three years of eligibility remaining starting this season, when he hopes to line up as an impact wide receiver in Mike Groh's offense.

Learning experience

He looks back on the Hawaii thing, not as a mistake, but rather a learning experience. He wouldn't go back and change things and for a good reason.

"It made me the person I am right now," Andrew Pearman said. "It helped me grow up and helped me understand what I really needed to do with my life and with football and school. Not saying anything toward [Hawaii's] program. It just

wasn't for me and going there helped me realize that Virginia really was where I was supposed to go."

The Pearmans are a close-knit family, but each have been taught to go their own way by parents Aidee and Alvin, who played football at Cornell and was drafted by the Baltimore Colts. There's also three older sisters and one of them travels around the world with her job.

Fitting in with the team

When Andrew was trying to figure out where he would fit in the family, he felt that he might be like his sister who currently works in South Korea. It turned out that seeing the world wasn't for him.

"I thought I could go far away from my family and still be fine, but obviously I

couldn't," the UVa sophomore said. "When I was in Hawaii, I realized I needed my family around, to be close enough for them to come to my games, close enough to where I could go home and see them ... not the other side of the world."

Speed to smile about

You'll have to excuse Virginia head coach Al Groh if he can't hide his smile when talking about Pearman, the fastest player in the Cavaliers' program. Andrew Pearman once ran a 4.21 in the 40, a 10.27 in the 100 meters, and once posted the sixth-fastest 200 meters (21.04) in North Carolina history (in 2003).

But he's just not a track guy who plays football. He's a track guy and a football player, who doesn't lose his speed once he puts on pads and a helmet. That's something his father emphasized to him a long time ago.

"Speed has always been my thing," Pearman said. "I've never been a big guy (he's listed at 5-10, 170). My dad always said, 'Hey, if you're not a big guy, you've got to bring something. Obviously, I wasn't going to be a power back or a big, strong receiver. So, God blessed me with some speed."

You wanna see Al Groh lose it? Ask him about Pearman's speed. Watch his face turn to an immediate grin. A big, wide grin as in he can't wait for UVa's first streak pattern this fall with Pearman's No. 21 (same number as Alvin at UVa) called on the play.

"Andrew's one of those guys who is easy to impress anybody in a hurry," Groh said. "He's got that kind of speed that gets your attention in a hurry. The most eye-catching thing about his speed is that he's able to make his cuts at full speed. There are some players who are fast players, who have to slow down to make their cuts. Not Andrew."

Teammates have noticed, too. Senior wideout Deyon Williams has watched so intently that his jaw drops at some of Pearman's moves. In fact, when Williams describes Pearman, he uses the word "big" four times to accent what kind of plays the newcomer will make this season.

"I think Andrew is probably the most dangerous guy on our team with the ball in his hands," Williams said. "He can cut on the move ... kinda reminds me of Reggie Bush in how he can cut with speed, although he has a lot of work to do to get to Reggie Bush's level."

But, hey, you've got to start somewhere.

Pearman has always been fast, but when he came back from Hawaii (where he did not appear in a game), he knew he was good at running straight ahead, but wanted to improve his lateral quickness. He found a speed training facility in Charlotte named "Velocity" that helped him accomplish his goal.

"I wanted to be able to cut on one step or be able to explode from cuts and I got a whole lot better on it," Pearman said.

He worked on it daily and continues to work on that aspect of his game on a weekly basis.

Unlike his brother, Andrew will line up at wide receiver (although Alvin did that with a couple of days notice during one time in his running back career at UVa and won Groh's deepest admiration for the sacrifice), where he believes he can make the greatest impact. However, he would like to explore other positions as a possibility of making him more valuable to the Cavaliers.

As a member of the scout team last season, he played a myriad of positions, which allowed him to experiment with his versatility. For now, though, wide receiver is his base and could supply UVa's version of the West Coast offense with that speed receiver deep threat it has never really had.

"We'll see," said Andrew, who appears to have the same mature stature as his brother, who played a lot as the Jacksonville Jaguars' fourth-round pick last season. "I just want to find my niche and help the team."

He may not realize it just yet, but he already has.

 

Cavs come out swinging versus Heels
Starsia's squad nets season-high goal mark in road win over UNC
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
April 9, 2006

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - In the late 1980s, Mike Tyson was at his peak of beating people to a pulp.
Many of the boxer's knockouts came within the first few seconds of the opening round. Often times, Tyson's opponents looked defeated before they even stepped in the ring.

These days, the Virginia men's lacrosse team is like a vintage Tyson - sans the ear biting, facial tattoos and overall psychotic behavior.

For the second game in a row, No. 1-ranked UVa came flying out of the gates. By the time North Carolina sniffed some smelling salts it was too late.

Playing on a rain-soaked field, Virginia - behind five goals from freshman Garrett Billings - defeated UNC 21-13. UVa (11-0, 2-0) has won 11 straight - by far the best start to a season in school history.

With the cancellation of the Duke game, Virginia has just one regular-season game remaining - a home date with Bellarmine on April 22 - before the ACC Tournament.

UVa's 21 goals against North Carolina was a season-high.

"You can't give up 21 goals and expect to win a lacrosse game," said UNC coach John Haus, whose team dropped its ninth straight. "Not against the University of Virginia."

UVa midfielder Drew Thompson said the Cavaliers made a concerted effort to throw some early haymakers.

"We were talking about that all week - that we wanted to come down here and get a couple of quick goals," Thompson said. "Their season hasn't gone the way they wanted it to, so that was kind of our gameplan to try and go up on them early."

Just like in its domination of then-No. 3 Maryland last week, Virginia didn't waste any time.

Only 33 seconds into the contest, Thompson connected on an overhand bounce shot from about 12 yards out. Less than two minutes later, after some great ball movement, Drew Garrison scored. Eight seconds later - thanks to Thompson winning a faceoff - Danny Glading scored to make it 3-0.

A stunned North Carolina called timeout, but that didn't stop the bleeding.

Billings and Will Barrow added goals to give Virginia a 5-0 lead less than halfway through the first quarter.

"They were even better than what we expected," said North Carolina midfielder Ben Staines. "Their offense was really good. They're constantly moving and are tough to guard. Every one of them has a right and left hand and can shoot from wherever."

UNC, which was led by Ryan Blair and Rob Driscoll - each scored two goals - didn't get on the scoreboard until 3:20 remained in the quarter.

Virginia's largest lead of the first half was seven goals.

To its credit, North Carolina (2-9, 0-3) didn't quit. The Tar Heels scored a pair of goals in the final minute of the half to make it an 11-6 game. Just over two minutes into the second half, Driscoll scored to make it 11-7, but UNC could never draw any closer.

One of the prettiest goals of the game came when Virginia's Matt Poskay caught a pass in front of the North Carolina net. As Tar Heel goalie Grant Zimmerman lunged toward Poskay's stick to swipe the ball away, Poskay fired an over-the-shoulder shot that beat Zimmerman.

"I thought it was kind of a good old fashioned lacrosse game that you don't see too much anymore - a lot of offense at both ends," said Virginia coach Dom Starsia. "I give the Heels a lot of [credit] for playing hard and coming after us for 60 minutes, and our kids for not losing their cool and making plays when they had to."

For the game, Virginia and North Carolina each attempted 46 shots. UVa was 3 for 4 on its man-up opportunities, while UNC was 0 for 3. The Cavaliers, as they have done all season, did a great job on faceoffs, winning 23 of 38.

A memorable faceoff occurred with under three minutes remaining in the game. After gaining control of the ball, Virginia's Adam Fassnacht went the length of the field in just six seconds and scored to put UVa up 21-12.

After the game, UVa players looked happy as they collected equipment and talked to fans

"It was a good win," Thompson said. "Coming down here to Carolina you always know it's going to be a hard game."

Added defender Ricky Smith: "Their record doesn't show it, but they're a good team."

Smith said giving up 13 goals - the second most Virginia has surrendered this season - wasn't cause for concern. After all, Fetzer Field looked like a slip 'n' slide at times.

"A lot of their goals came on miscommunication where we had guys falling down," Smith said.

Starsia agreed that the field conditions caused his players some problems.

"It's not an excuse," he said, "but I thought we went down a couple of times trying to make some plays that we might be able to make on a dry track."

Even though it wasn't all that close, Starsia said North Carolina provided a good test.

"At the end of the day, it was kind of the perfect game for us," Starsia said. "It was certainly a quality win on the road."

 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Apr 8, 2006
SPRING GAME
WHEN: April 22, 3:30 p.m. WHERE: Scott Stadium

LONG TIME COMING: It's likely that no Virginia football player will be more enthused about the April 22 spring game than Jeffrey Fitzgerald, a 6-3, 270-pound defensive end from Hermitage High.

"There'll be a lot of hype, a lot of anticipation, just a lot of energy," Fitzgerald said after a recent practice. "I'll be real excited to get back on the field."

Fitzgerald, who redshirted as a U.Va. freshman last season, hasn't played in a game since his junior year at Hermitage. On the eve of his senior season, he tore the ACL in his left knee in a scrimmage.

This spring, he's been working with the second team, and the loss of defensive end Vince Redd, who was dismissed from the team last month, means more will be expected of Fitzgerald this season.

"I was going to do my best competing out here whether he was here or not," Fitzgerald said. "With him gone, it's still a great loss - we could really use him - but I realize I have to step up even more now."

TAKE A PEEK: The Cavaliers have two more open practices this month, plus the April 22 spring game. Virginia's practice today, which starts at 1:15 p.m., is open, as is Friday's session (4 p.m.).

Fans attending today's practice should park in the lot behind The Cage and enter through the gate at the University Hall Turf Field.

OUT OF COMMISSION: Rising sophomore Eugene Monroe, the projected starter at left offensive tackle, was to have "cleanup surgery" on his left knee yesterday afternoon, coach Al Groh told reporters yesterday morning.

Monroe, 6-6, 318, dislocated his kneecap in practice Sunday. He'll miss the rest of spring practice but is expected to be ready for training camp this summer. Zak Stair, a rising sophomore, has taken Monroe's place on the first team.

The Cavaliers' projected starter at right tackle, rising junior Eddie Pinigis, has been slowed by an ankle injury, Groh said, which has meant more repetitions for freshman Will Barker, who redshirted last season.

Asked if the extra work for Stair and Barker should pay dividends in the fall, Groh said, "In theory. . . . Now we've got to see if the theory becomes reality."

SLIMFAST: As a true freshman in 2003, when he started five games at offensive guard, Ian-Yates Cunningham was listed at 309 pounds. Cunningham, who'll be a redshirt junior this fall, now is the Cavaliers' No. 1 center, and he weighs in the "mid to upper 280s," Groh said.

"One of the issues that both coaches and the strength staff have emphasized to Ian during his early years here," Groh said, "was the need to change his body; turn it into more of a college lineman's body: firmer around the shoulder, smaller around the waist. He's done a good job of it."

THREE'S NOT A CROWD: Between them, tight ends Jonathan Stupar and Tom Santi combined to catch 43 passes for 677 yards and three touchdowns last season, and both figure to play leading roles this fall. That doesn't necessarily mean John Phillips, a rising sophomore, will be a spectator when Stupar and Santi are on the field.

"Our attitude with tight ends here is the more the merrier," Groh said. "I don't know if we'll get to four tight ends, but we certainly wouldn't be averse to having three in there."

NAME TO REMEMBER: Simon Manka, who came to U.Va. on a lacrosse scholarship, now is focusing on football. Don't be surprised to see Manka, 6-0, 175, on special teams this season.

"He's got good speed, and he's a tough little guy," Groh said. "He's not dissuaded by any circumstance that's thrown in front of him, whether it's another player or a competitive situation. He's got that tenacity."

Manka, who's from Orchard Park, N.Y., was a reserve midfielder on Virginia's lacrosse team in 2004 and '05. He joined the football team as a walk-on last season.

TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM: Brad Butler hurt his left shoulder Sept. 17 in Virginia's win at Syracuse. He knew the injury to his rotator cuff would require surgery. But the starting right offensive tackle also knew his "team needed me at that point, and I wanted to help my teammates out."

So Butler played the rest of the season with his shoulder in a harness. He had surgery Jan. 3 to repair his rotator cuff.

Butler, who started 37 games in his four seasons at U.Va., is likely to be a second-day pick in this month's NFL draft. He's being represented by Integrity First Management, an agency whose president is Anthony Munoz.

Butler said he works out with Munoz, one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history, three or four times a week in Cincinnati.

"The big thing with him is, obviously, he's a great player, but I get to see what it's like to be a player on the field and off the field," Butler said last month in Charlottesville. "He's one of the most humble people I've ever met, and he's a good citizen up there, and he's really involved in community service and his family." - Jeff White
 

Olsen glad to be back
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- On the week that Christian Olsen joined Virginia's football program in 2003, Anthony Martinez was preparing to make his debut as the Cavaliers' starting quarterback.

Martinez was subbing for an injured Matt Schaub, but reporters were already speculating about the future and an anticipated three-way battle between Martinez, Olsen and then-freshman Kevin McCabe.

Nobody was talking about Marques Hagans.

Soon, they would be. After Martinez bombed at South Carolina, Virginia had no choice other than to turn to Hagans, previously being groomed as a wide receiver and return specialist. Hagans was spectacular the next week at Western Michigan.

By the time Olsen became eligible the next fall, the Cavaliers had a quarterback.

What if Olsen had known in September 2003 what he knows now, that Hagans would start 24 consecutive games? Would he have been as quick to enroll at Virginia?

"There's probably places I could have gone and played quicker," said Olsen, who turned 23 this week, "but I've loved every minute I've been at UVa. Why wouldn't I? We've played in three bowl games since I've been here. We beat Florida State. We play in the best conference. I'm going to graduate from the No. 1 public school in the country. I've met some of my best friends here. So, there's really not much more I can ask for.

"I've never thought, 'What would have happened if I hadn't come here?'"

Spectators and some in the media were left to wonder if Olsen would ever get his chance when he and his parents were introduced with the UVa seniors prior to the Cavaliers' final regular-season home game.

"It did create a little bit of a stir," said Olsen's father, Chris. "I had one of the coaches ask me, 'What are you doing here?'"

It turns out, the athletic department sends out invitations to all fourth- and fifth-year players, but coach Al Groh added to the intrigue when asked about Olsen's future in a teleconference on the Sunday after a 52-14 loss to Virginia Tech.

"Really, we haven't addressed that or made any determination," Groh said.

Compare that to Groh's comments in a news conference March 28, one day before the start of spring practice.

"We'll start the spring with Chris Olsen; he'll be the first guy to go into the huddle," Groh said. "Kevin McCabe will follow him in. And that's the way it is and that's the way it's going to stay until performance by any of the quarterbacks determines otherwise. What have we not covered there?"

What had changed in the span of four months?

Olsen isn't sure anything had changed.

"I really didn't think too much about it," Olsen said. "Then when I had my talk with coach Groh when we got back from winter break, he talked about it, too. I think he was thinking of me coming back and I was thinking of me coming back and it was nothing but a misunderstanding."

Nervertheless, it was reassuring to hear from reporters that Groh had given him the nod publicly.

"Just from talking to him and the confidence he showed, I was kind of expecting to be the first guy in the huddle," Olsen said. "But, by no means does that mean I'm the first guy in the huddle for Pittsburgh [in the season's opener]. But, I've kind of felt that it was my turn and we've done everything we can to get to this point."

Olsen played with a torn anterior cruciate ligament for much of his senior year at Wayne Hills High School, where he played for his father, but it didn't prevent him from making SuperPrep's All-America team. He eventually picked Notre Dame over Miami, Auburn, Virginia and others.

As a redshirt, he was named offensive most valuable player in Notre Dame's 2003 spring game and was told he was the No. 2 quarterback behind Carlyle Holiday.

The Irish were also high on another young quarterback, Brady Quinn, who probably will go into the 2005 season as the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. Whether Olsen would have held off Quinn is a matter of conjecture; at the time, they were both back-ups.

Once he became eligible at Virginia, Olsen was the No. 3 quarterback for a time before moving ahead of McCabe. In two years, Olsen has completed 17 of 23 passes in mostly mop-up duty.

"He'll do fine," said Olsen's father, who has always worked with quarterbacks in his 30 years as a coach in New Jersey high schools. "He's worked his entire life for this. It hasn't been an easy road, but that goes with the position you play."

In addition to putting up some impressive numbers, Hagans was remarkably durable.

"Marques is a great player," Olsen said. "Anybody who's going to be drafted as a wide receiver and hasn't played receiver in three years is obviously a great athlete and a great player. Sitting behind him is nothing to be ashamed of.

"Maybe I can do some of the same things he did but do them in a different way. Whereas he scrambles for 25 yards when a play breaks down, maybe I can get it to one of our running backs and he takes it 25 yards."

There is another quarterback that Olsen emulates from a style standpoint and the Cavaliers won't object to the comparison.

"If I could play like anybody right now it would be Matt Schaub," he said. "Who wouldn't want to play like him? He ran this offense probably the best it's ever been run. Not saying I am Matt Schaub, but if I could play like that, completing 70 percent of my passes and not making any mistakes, what more could I want?"
 

Will State have ACC's only vacancy?
I-A schools looking at Glenvar's Mowles
Doug Doughty

While fishing around for information about the vacant men’s basketball position at North Carolina State, the most interesting rumor I heard today was about another vacancy.

Could Miami coach Frank Haith be interested in the Oklahoma job?

That would make sense. Haith was an assistant coach to Rick Barnes at Texas, so he knows the Big 12 landscape. Plus, it’s never going to be easy for Miami in the ACC, especially now that Guillermo Diaz has decided not to return for his senior year.

Why wouldn’t Haith be interested in Oklahoma? Maybe the better question is, would Oklahoma be interested in Haith?

The Oklahoma coaching search will be watched closely in Virginia because one of the state’s top prospects, Herndon High School guard Scotty Reynolds, signed with the Sooners this past fall.

Reynolds has said he will wait and see who Oklahoma names as a successor to Kelvin Sampson before taking steps to get out of his letter-of-intent. Sampson resigned after 12 years to become the head coach at Indiana, but the Hoosiers aren’t being mentioned prominently for Reynolds.

According to reports, Virginia and Virginia Tech are among the schools that have let it be known they would be interested in Reynolds if his letter were to be voided, but the smart money is on Georgetown if Reynolds does not stick with Oklahoma.

Moreover, the Hoyas also are being mentioned prominently with Chris Wright, a 6-foot-1 guard from St. John’s in Washington, D.C. Wright has made an oral commitment to North Carolina State but reopened his recruiting when Herb Sendek resigned to go to Arizona State.

State fans were never completely happy with Sendek, whose last five teams went to the NCAA Tournament, so you know they’ll be expecting a big name. Not surprisingly, Texas coach and North Carolinian Rick Barnes was the first person mentioned but he already has eliminated himself.

Some of the other names being bandied about are Memphis’ John Calipari and LSU’s John Brady. Brady is among the lowest-paid head coaches in the Southeastern Conference, but if he were to talk to the Wolfpack, would he be seriously interested in coming to the ACC or just launching a salary drive?

The Wolfpack probably could get George Mason coach Jim Larranaga off the Patriots’ Final Four appearance, but is Larranaga a big enough name? If it’s a name they’re after, State’s boosters could break the bank and go after Kentucky’s Tubby Smith.

If there’s anything Virginia learned during its coaching search last spring, it’s that Smith has his price and the Cavaliers could have had him, but was he worth 3-4 times what UVa paid for Dave Leitao from DePaul? Probably not.

There are several State alumni in coaching, including Dereck Whittenburg at Fordham and Monty Towe at New Orleans, but don’t expect the Wolfpack to go after the Portland Trailblazers’ Nate McMillan. McMillan makes close to $7 million per year in the NBA.

WILLIAM CAMPBELL football coach Brad Bradley reports that UVa-Wise has taken commitments from two of his players, wide receiver Matt Barbour and defensive back James Haley, the Nos. 77 and 91 prospects in Virginia, respectively.

Other Roanoke Times Top 100 prospects whose destinations have not previously been reported in this column are No. 80 Bryan Hall, an offensive and defensive lineman from Richmond Hermitage, who is going to Morehead (Ky.) State, and No. 81 Ryan Tillman, an offensive lineman from Clifton Centreville who signed with Norfolk State.

Another player who is going I-AA is George Mason High School running back Travis Greene, rated the No. 64 prospect in the state. Greene, originally headed for Lehigh, decided to play at Elon after Lehigh head coach Pete Lembo took that job. Greene rushed for 1,431 yards and scored 23 touchdowns as a senior.

Virginiapreps.com reports that the 74th-rated prospect in the state, running back Donielle Babb from Franklin, is going to Hampton. Also, defensive end Terrell Williams from Lake Taylor in Norfolk is going to Louisburg (N.C.) Junior College. He was 91st on the list.

The word from coach David Tibbs from Robert E. Lee in Staunton is that wide receiver Eli Crawford, the 88th-ranked football prospect in the state, is likely to play basketball in college. Crawford’s brother, Tyler, played in 22 of 33 games as a sophomore this past season and averaged 0.4 points.

The top uncommitted player on The Roanoke Times list is Donte Davis, a wide receiver from Westfield High School in Chantilly. Davis, rated 32nd, is likely to end up at Division I-AA once his academics are found to be in order.

EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL wide receiver Danny Coale has received his heaviest recruiting interest so far from Virginia and Johns Hopkins in lacrosse, said his father, VMI director of strength and conditioning Jimmy Coale said. An older Coale brother, Kevin, is a redshirt freshman on the UVa men’s lacrosse team.

Virginia, Maryland and Wake Forest all have inquired about the younger Coale for football. He has been timed in 4.38 seconds for 40 yards and had 52 receptions for 937 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.

GLENVAR HIGH SCHOOL coach Lee Johnson said that junior Ryan Mowles, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound offensive tackle and outside linebacker, already has visited Duke and East Carolina for junior-day events. Maryland, Temple and Liberty also have expressed interest in Mowles.

Johnson said that two other juniors, 6-3, 200-pound tight end Shawn Crawford and 5-10, 170-pound defensive back A.J. Looney are worthy of some Division I-AA looks.
 

Team has swaggered for years
Misdemeanors over a seven-year period fuel the lacrosse team's rowdy reputation
Jim Nesbitt, Benjamin Niolet and Lorenzo Perez, Staff Writers

The warning signs of a Duke University lacrosse team skidding toward disaster are scattered through the courthouse records of Durham and Orange counties -- and have been for at least the past seven years.
Speeding down I-40 while drunk. Urinating in public. Using an adult's ID to buy a case of beer while underage. Kicking in the slats of a fence after an argument with a girlfriend.

Since 1999, records show, 41 Blue Devil lacrosse players -- about 31 percent of all players on the roster from then until now -- have been charged with a variety of rowdy and drunken acts.

Of this year's squad of 47 players -- their season canceled, their coach exiled and their university shamed -- roughly a third have been charged with similar misdemeanors.

In contrast, records show, only two members of Duke's 27-man soccer squad for this year have been arrested -- on charges of misdemeanor property damage and resisting arrest. Four of this year's 22 baseball players have been arrested in connection with underage alcohol offenses, all misdemeanors, records show.

Taken separately, the charges against Duke lacrosse players read like standard-issue, alcohol-fueled offenses of college students experiencing their first taste of freedom. Most are minor cases, quickly settled, that fall far short of the allegations of an escort service dancer who says she was gang-raped during a team party March 13 in the bathroom of a white rental house on Buchanan Boulevard where three lacrosse co-captains lived.

None of the misdemeanor charges encompasses the ugliness of team member Ryan McFadyen's searing e-mail in which he threatened to kill and skin strippers or a racially provocative insult shouted by an unidentified white male on Buchanan Boulevard the night of the team party.

But taken as a body of work, the charges track the noisy passage of a championship lacrosse team with a reputation for a swaggering sense of entitlement and privilege. They underscore the hard-drinking image of the Duke lacrosse team -- which some residents say is a super-sized version of the university's elitist, party-hearty ethos.

"There is a culture at Duke of an entitlement to be drunk in the evenings and on the weekends," said Robert Panoff, a former Notre Dame club lacrosse player who has lived for more than a decade in Trinity Park, the neighborhood on the edge of Duke's east campus where the lacrosse team captains lived.

"That's the attitude that pervades the Duke campus, and it's not just the lacrosse team," said Panoff, founder and executive director of a nonprofit research and education organization. "There is a particular swagger at Duke. Is there a particular machismo and variation of that swagger on the lacrosse team? Absolutely."

Panoff is quick to point out that lacrosse is not a monolithic culture. But for other Durham residents, the lacrosse imbroglio has raised racial tensions.

The dancer who is alleging the rape is black. She says her three unidentified attackers are white. All but the team's lone black player have submitted to DNA tests, and Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong says results could be released this week. Nifong says he's confident the woman was sexually assaulted. But attorneys for the players say no rape, assault or sex occurred.

'Preppy arrogance'

The case has ripped an already frayed town-and-gown relationship, underscoring the friction between the school, with its $41,000-a-year cost and walled campus, and the surrounding city.

"It's this preppy arrogance that they will never be held accountable for what they've done -- that their daddies will get them out of it," said Eugene Brown, a Durham city councilman who lives on Buchanan Boulevard, a block from the rental house.

"What do you do when you walk out and some guy is urinating on your house and you ask him to stop and he refuses?" Brown said. "We've been living with this for years, and the lacrosse players were the worst."

On the field, Duke's team has the reputation for playing a disciplined and aggressive brand of lacrosse, a fast-paced, hard-hitting game invented by American Indian tribes. Under coach Mike Pressler, who resigned last week, they won Atlantic Coast Conference championships in 1995, 2001 and 2002. Last year, they narrowly lost the NCAA championship game to another perennial lacrosse power, Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore.

But the team's behavior off the field rankles some Duke students, causing a smoldering resentment against lacrosse athletes they see as more aloof, isolated and arrogant than fraternities or other university athletic teams.

"They're rude," said Jordan Greene, 21, a senior philosophy and art major. "They're everything everyone [in Durham] wants to hate. ... I can't wear a Duke shirt in town without people automatically making assumptions about my background, whether or not I have a million-dollar trust fund."

Former Duke baseball players say loutish behavior and dancers at team parties weren't just a lacrosse thing -- they did the same thing and often joined the lacrosse team at tailgate parties during Duke football games.

But Duke's current baseball players haven't racked up an arrest record like the lacrosse team's. Triangle court records show 16 lacrosse players currently on the roster have been arrested in the past three years on charges ranging from public urination on a private residence to underage possession of a malt beverage to helping a minor get a mixed drink.

In addition, sophomore player Collin Finnerty and two friends were arrested last fall in Washington on simple assault charges. Finnerty was ordered to perform 25 hours of community service in Washington; if he does, the charges will be dropped, his attorney said.

Duke officials have struck different stances on the series of alcohol-related charges against lacrosse players. At a news conference March 28, university President Richard Brodhead and Athletic Director Joe Alleva said the charges weren't a warning sign of a team out of control.

"Many, many things in university life are aggravated by the presence of alcohol," Brodhead said. "Talk to anybody at any university, you will learn the truth of that. At the same time, the presence of alcohol does not guarantee that really bad things happen thereafter."

Alleva said: "I do not believe that those incidents, as the president has said, has any correlation with the severe allegations that are made in this case."

But Tallman Trask III, Duke's executive vice president, told The New York Times last week that he pulled all the disciplinary records on the lacrosse team a year ago -- violations that in hindsight should have been a red flag.

On Wednesday, Brodhead announced five committees charged with investigating the culture of the lacrosse program, student conduct, Duke's handling of the gang-rape allegation and other issues.

Brodhead said a faculty group will investigate the lacrosse team's renegade reputation and "look into that whole history and tell us whether that's true or not."

Lacrosse defended

Former lacrosse players at Duke and other colleges defend their sport. So do lacrosse coaches at the public high schools and prep schools that feed players to Duke's program. They also worry that the allegations that caused Duke officials to cancel the team's season will blunt the growing popularity of their sport and give college officials a ready reason not to make lacrosse a varsity sport.

"It's had a negative impact," said Aaron Fenton, a first-team All-American at Duke who graduated in 2005, one of three brothers to play for Pressler. "I don't want everybody to label lacrosse players in general the way the Duke lacrosse team has been. Playing for Duke was the best experience of my life."

Fenton said the portrayals of the team's rowdy partying and elitist attitudes were greatly exaggerated. Playing lacrosse at Duke builds character, he said.

"It taught me to be a man," said Fenton, a goalie drafted this year to play professionally for the San Francisco Dragons. "We were the average student-athlete at Duke. We weren't elitist. I don't think people saw us that way."

Fenton's mother, Dr. Marie Savard, an internal medicine specialist from Wynnewood, Pa., said she was saddened by Pressler's departure and shocked by McFadyen's e-mail. McFadyen and his parents could not be reached for comment about his e-mail.

"I would be devastated if one of my sons wrote something like that, even if they were drunk," she said.

Robinson "Rob" Bordley, head coach of boys' lacrosse at the Landon School in Bethesda, Md., a private school that has five graduates on this year's Duke team, said his former charges told him that Duke may decide by May 1 whether to resume lacrosse next year. With Pressler gone, such added uncertainty hurts Duke's chances to land top prospects, including several Washington-area players.

"People would be insane right now to sign with Duke without even knowing if there will be a program there," he said.

Bordley said he has used McFadyen's lurid e-mail as an object lesson for his players.

"I told them this was another illustration of what alcohol does to a kid's brain," he said. "Who in their right mind would make the rational decision to send an e-mail like that?"

Alcohol and young, aggressive athletes playing a violent game are a volatile combination, said William E. Scroggs, senior associate athletic director at UNC-Chapel Hill and chairman of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's rules committee for men's lacrosse.

"Everything that goes wrong in intercollegiate athletics, behaviorally, revolves around alcohol," said Scroggs, UNC's former men's lacrosse coach, ticking off a list that includes drunken driving, fights and sexual assaults. "My personal opinion is it's an alcohol issue, not a lacrosse or athletics issue. These types of things don't happen on a Tuesday afternoon when no one's been drinking."

The pipeline to Duke

Lacrosse, once a minor sport limited to such places as Long Island, Baltimore and New England, is now the fastest-growing sport in the United States, according to an April 2005 Sports Illustrated article. The game's popularity has pushed its boundaries to Colorado and California.

Traditional lacrosse powerhouses fall into two camps. One camp includes prestigious private schools such as Landon or Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., an all-boys academy administered by Benedictine monks. Five Duke lacrosse players, including co-captain Dave Evans, are Landon grads. Five, including McFadyen, went to Delbarton.

But a third of Duke's lacrosse team -- 14 players -- come from Long Island, home to a far more physical brand of lacrosse. They are graduates of public school powerhouses such as Garden City High School or Massapequa High School or perennial Catholic contenders such as Chaminade High School.

If the Triangle is basketball-crazed, consider Long Island lacrosse-obsessed.

"It's almost like a disease, but in a good way," said Sean Keenan, assistant boy's lacrosse coach at Oceanside High School on Long Island and 1987 lacrosse All-American at Adelphi University. "You fall in love with the game and you can't even watch baseball. It's hockey on grass, but much more scoring makes it more exciting. ... It's an emotional game and you play it as long as you can and when you can no longer play, you coach."

Keenan worries about the impact of the Duke lacrosse scandal on the sport he loves.

"It's a blemish for all lacrosse players," he said. "It's going to be a blemish that causes colleges to take a second look at lacrosse. Hopefully, it's not a black card that halts the collegiate expansion of lacrosse."

(Staff writers Anne Blythe, Sam LaGrone, Michael Biesecker, Jane Stancill and Ned Barnett and researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)